Washington DC-based law firm Whitfield, Bryson & Mason announced that it had filed a class action lawsuit against Apple over widespread graphical issues encountered on 2011 MacBook Pros with AMD GPUs.

The issue appears to stem from poor soldering between the GPU and logic board. According to the lawsuit:

When the lead-free solder cracks it degrades the data flow between the GPU and the logic board. A small crack can cause the laptop's graphics to become distorted on occasion. But as cracks in the lead-free solder propagate over time, the graphics issues worsen and system stability decreases, until eventually the computer is completely unusable. This defect related to the lead-free solder connecting the GPU to the logic board (the "Graphics Defect") limits all computers at the point of sale forward from performing as advertised and warranted.

The news comes after a change.org petition calling for Apple to replace or fix all 2011 MacBook Pros that experienced the issue has reached over 20,000 signatures.

The lawsuit is currently being filed on behalf of customers in California and Florida, and is being considered for filing in other parts of the country as well.

If you want to take a look at the lawsuit, you can find it here (warning: it's a hefty read). Do you think this lawsuit will go anywhere? Let us know in the comments.